AMP vs PA

Posted: 1/28/2011 6:29:15 PM
FredM

From: Eastleigh, Hampshire, U.K. ................................... Fred Mundell. ................................... Electronics Engineer. (Primarily Analogue) .. CV Synths 1974-1980 .. Theremin developer 2007 to present .. soon to be Developing / Trading as WaveCrafter.com . ...................................

Joined: 12/7/2007

[i]"You can move the amp up and closer to your head.." - Jeff [/i]

ROFLMAO!! ;-)
Posted: 1/29/2011 12:44:22 PM
Muaddib

From: Oahu, Hawaii

Joined: 1/23/2011

I tried it last night with the gain turned down, but the sound was just too low. I tried headphones but I could just barely hear it. Perhaps the amp or theremin is having some sort of technical issue? I do not have another amp, nor another instrument to test the amp. Ill have to find a way to test it out.
Posted: 1/29/2011 8:29:42 PM
FredM

From: Eastleigh, Hampshire, U.K. ................................... Fred Mundell. ................................... Electronics Engineer. (Primarily Analogue) .. CV Synths 1974-1980 .. Theremin developer 2007 to present .. soon to be Developing / Trading as WaveCrafter.com . ...................................

Joined: 12/7/2007

[i]"Ill have to find a way to test it out" -Muaddib [/i]

Could be either your amp not working correctly, or your theremin output being too low..

You can do a basic test on the amp by feeding it from a known good signal (output of a CD player or line-out from any other instrument - or simply touching the live end of the input jack and hearing a loud hum..)

If you prove that the amp is giving a loud enough signal, without distortion, from some other signal source, then it is possible / likely that your theremin's output is low.

Incorrectly tuned volume circuitry (or having some ground object / wire close to the volume antenna) can greatly reduce the signal level from the theremin.. So try moving the theremin to a different location etc.

Fred
Posted: 1/29/2011 10:57:30 PM
Jeff S

From: N.E. Ohio

Joined: 2/14/2005

Did I say something funny? :-) I thought I was just stating the obvious. Speaking of that...

Fred's right....we don't know how he has his theremin set up. We are ASSUMING it is mounted on a microphone stand and at an adequate distance from other objects.

He's also right that *something* is amiss. I wanted to mention earlier that even a mediocre amp should be able to put out a sound pressure level of at least 80dB at 1 watt at 1 meter. 12 watts should give you a good volume on a smallish speaker.
Posted: 1/30/2011 5:27:04 AM
AlKhwarizmi

From: A Coruña, Spain

Joined: 9/26/2010

If you have a computer, you can try connecting the theremin's output to the computer's "line in" (blue minijack), with a jack to minijack adapter. You will probably get crappy sound compared to the amplifier, but it should be useful to test if the volume is right.

About being on a mic stand, etc.; from my experience having a B3 standard and an Etherwave, I can say that while the Etherwave is very sensitive to that (mine will simply refuse to play on a table unless the volume loop is beyond the edge of the table), the B3 is more flexible in that respect. I play mine without problems placing it on the middle of a big table. I don't know if there could be a difference between standard and deluxe though, or possible influences from objects in the proximity.

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